


Necessary

by Basingstoke



Category: The Authority
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2002-01-07
Updated: 2002-03-25
Packaged: 2017-10-03 14:29:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Basingstoke/pseuds/Basingstoke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SPOILERS for the Authority #27</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Apollo was slumped in his chains, beaten and bleeding and worn. Baby Jenny was upset just looking at him. Almost as upset as Midnighter himself.

"Ba!" Jenny said in his ear as Midnighter looked for a key.

"Ssh. Daddy's working on it." He gave up looking for the key and instead went to lift Apollo down from the hook.

Apollo was thin and felt fragile. He reeked of blood and sweat. "Ba! Ba ba ba!" Baby Jenny insisted.

"I know," Midnighter whispered, his throat tight. He laid Apollo on the floor and aimed his fist carefully at a tangle of chain on his side.

One blow broke the links. "Yee!" Jenny said. Midnighter heard the doors whisper open and melted into a shadow.

"God DAMN am I in a rotten mood today. You hear that, sweetheart?" Last Call said. Teuton, the German shortbread cookie, rolled his eyes beside him.

"I heard you," Midnighter said. He stepped out of the shadows and ripped out their throats.

Midnighter knelt beside Apollo again, listening to the bubble of breath behind him and smiling. Apollo's functioning eye opened.

He didn't seem to realize at first. But... "Midnighter?"

"Yes," he said, and he was crying, and Apollo was crying, and then they were kissing as Jenny burbled happily.

*


	2. Chapter 2

"This is going to take a lot of mopping," Midnighter said as they walked to the bridge. A scum of blood and less pleasant human fluids covered most of the floors in the Carrier.

"Ugh." Apollo's uniform was splashed to the knees--and he was still barefoot, unfortunately. "Did you know Jenny was going to do that?"

"Ba!"

"Yes. Good girl, Jenny." He smiled over his shoulder. "She doesn't like it when the bad people threaten her daddies." She'd pulsed, once, and everyone on the Carrier that wasn't Apollo or the Midnighter was turned into the nasty organic slick currently staining their uniforms.

"Daddies." Apollo smiled and gave Jenny his finger to grab,

"Ba!"

"She still remembers you," Midnighter said. "I'm Da, not Ba."

"Da!"

Jenny let go of Apollo's finger and Apollo touched Midnighter's shoulder. "How long has it been?"

"Too long." Midnighter stopped and kissed Apollo, sweet and long.

"Awwwww! You'd touch my heart, if I had one."

Midnighter whirled. Seth stood in the corridor, grinning and overconfident as always. "You didn't think nobody would notice, did you? As soon as the big boys saw the Carrier go off the net, they sent me out," Seth said, stalking forward on his ridiculous little metal hooves.

Apollo tensed to fight--still tapped, nearly dead, but not willing to go quietly. Midnighter loved him for it.

"Yee!"

Midnighter pulled a tiny little piece of machinery from his belt, pointed it at Seth, and pressed a button.

"Ooh, that tickled," Seth said, grinning. He reached for Midnighter.

Both arms fell off. Seth stopped dead and his legs collapsed under him. "What--"

His skin retracted over his cabled muscles, exposing machinery and guts, and then his bones dissolved.

Midnighter looked at the floor. "Up." He grabbed Apollo and lifted him off the floor to hang off a pylon, checking to be sure he had enough strength to hold on before swinging up himself.

Seth howled "What the hell did you--" before his jaw dissolved entirely. He collapsed into a rapidly diminishing pile--and then there was nothing, just a stain, and then there wasn't even a stain. The scum of blood vanished from the polished metal floor in both directions.

Midnighter looked at the floor. He dropped down and monitored his boots. "I think it's safe now."

Apollo let go. He stumbled when he landed. "What did you do to him?"

"Turned his nanotech against him. It took a while, but I found the control code. The signal told it to start eating him from the inside."

"That's poetic." Apollo grinned. "How did you find it? How did you know?"

"Would you make a killing machine with no off switch? I just had to look."

"Jesus." Apollo cupped Midnighter's mask and kissed him again. "I love you. So much. *So* much."

Midnighter hugged Apollo tight and kissed back.

"And now we don't have to mop."


	3. Chapter 3

The Midnighter monitored the data transfer on his laptop as the Carrier purred in his ear. Apollo stretched out beautifully naked in the afternoon sun. "I feel so much better," Apollo said.

Midnighter leaned over and kissed him. Jenny burbled.

"The Carrier is just thrilled. I didn't realize it liked you so much," Apollo said.

"It likes being free of the torture machinery." Midnighter checked the clock. "Almost time."

"For what?"

"You'l see."

Apollo rolled his eyes and sat up, pulling the blanket over his lap. He picked up Jenny. She hit him on the nose with her stuffed octopus happily. "Ba!"

"Sweetie! You're so big!" He lifted her up a few times. "How long has it been?"

"Six months. It took me a while to make my plans."

Apollo set Jenny on his lap. "Felt like six years." He kissed Midnighter.

The burst of light startled them both. They turned in time to see the shock wave and the mushroom cloud. Jenny squeaked as they guarded her between them.

When the shock wave passed they looked up again. "Was that DC?" Apollo asked.

Midnighter grinned. "Yeah."

"Did you do that?"

"Kind of." Midnighter hugged Apollo. "For the next few decades, the US is going to be run by the Daughters of the Bald Eagle as a socialist matriarchy. They've already taken over the military. I gave them some tips on policing to reduce the post-attack chaos."

"Jesus."

"There are--or were--fourteen other assassins nearly as powerful as Seth hidden beneath Washington DC. We had to make a clean sweep in order for this to work."

"Jesus." Apollo pressed his forehead to Midnighter's. "This is crazy."

"This will work."

"I love you."

"We'll make this work." Midnighter kissed Apollo as the second nuke detonated in DC.


	4. Chapter 4

"The United States of America welcomes her protectors," President Wolfsdaughter said. She was a tall, beak-nosed woman with a long gray braid.

"We're happy to protect you," Midnighter replied. He smiled in a not *entirely* unfriendly manner.

Apollo bounced Baby Jenny on his knee. "We're working on the radiation containment shield," he said. "We think we can make it permanent. It would help if you could find the Engineer."

"She was displaced in the riots," Midnighter said. He sent Wolfsdaughter the vital statistics.

Wolfsdaughter looked down at her display. "For such a woman, we can spare the personnel. We'll search as best we can. And the other Authority?"

"Found." Apollo said. "But..."

"We're working on them too." Midnighter was cracking the siphoned data, trying to find the key to their buried minds.

Wolfsdaughter nodded. She looked at Jenny. "The child might benefit from the influence of women."

"The child stays with us," Midnighter growled. "Goodbye, Ms. President." He turned off the connection.

"Ba."

"Daddy's pi-issed o-off," Apollo sang to Jenny.

Midnighter growled and grabbed him, squeezing his thigh. "Mine. Both of you. I'm not giving you up for anything."

Apollo kissed him.

*


	5. Chapter 5

*

The surface wasn't cracked where they stood. It was smooth and dark gray and hot in the sun. The dust was like powder under his boots.

Midnighter squeezed Apollo's arm and Apollo kissed him, breathed air into his lungs. Apollo didn't need to breathe even as much as Midnighter did.

The dust was still settling from their footsteps. One-sixth gravity and a tiny fraction of atmosphere; their prints would remain forever. Somewhere, the Engineer's prints still remained. So did Neil Armstrong's, unless they'd been wiped out by the creeping ick.

Hard to think about the creeping ick when the Earth shone pretty as a painting on glass before them. It reminded him why he was fighting so hard--to protect it, and the people on it.

Apollo wrapped his arms around Midnighter and squeezed hard enough to make him squeak. Tiny little sound; it didn't carry in the airlessness.

He'd *kill* anyone else that tried that. Lucky that nobody did.

So much beauty all around him. So much. It made everything he gave up worthwhile--probably. Maybe.

Apollo pressed his cheek to Midnighter's; Midnighter turned his head and Apollo kissed him again, blew him more air.

Yes. Worth it.

"No more breath," Apollo sent. "Time to go. Door."

Midnighter crossed his arms and embraced Apollo's arms to his chest as they stepped back onto the Carrier. He breathed in, turned around and kissed Apollo, giving back his air. Worth it, worth every breath he had. Worth every drop of blood in his body.

"Love you," Apollo said. Midnighter just smiled.

*


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Livia

Midnighter closes his eyes with Apollo. He lets Apollo surprise him with his touches.

He can make projections from touches, but they're fuzzier, less certain than looks. It leaves the element of surprise partially intact. Sex is better when he hasn't already made love to his lover in his head.

So he closes his eyes and waits to see how Apollo touches him.

Soft mouth at his collarbone.

Hard fingers on his thigh, leaving the fine hair prickled erect.

Smooth hair falling onto his neck lock by startling lock.

Sharp hip against hip, bruising fragile skin between them, as Apollo's mouth kisses his chin. Kisses his mouth next, tasting like cinnamon. Smelling like wind.

Apollo's hands flat on his chest now. His touch feels different on the side of his chest without the scars. Sharper. Midnighter rubs his cheek against Apollo's hair.

Apollo twists his hips suddenly, rubbing cock against belly. Apollo kisses him, Apollo flexes his fingers into Midnighter's chest, and Midnighter feels it, finally, a rush of pleasure intense enough to make him forget where he is.

They needed this when they were still on the street. It was the only thing that made their life suck a little less.

Now it makes a new home feel less alien. Now the sheets on the new bed begin to smell like his lover, and the echoes off new walls sound like his lover's voice.

"Love you," Apollo whispers into his ear.

"Love you so much," Midnighter replies.


End file.
